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Effects of Parental Behavior on Child Anxiety Regulation
This study has been completed.
First Received: January 3, 2008   No Changes Posted
Sponsors and Collaborators: University of California, Los Angeles
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Information provided by: University of California, Los Angeles
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00593515
  Purpose

Does parenting style affect emotion regulation among children who initially demonstrate high levels of fear and anxiety? Although recent correlational research has demonstrated a linkage between parental behaviors, such as excessive intrusiveness, and children's manifestations of fear and anxiety, it is not clear if parenting behaviors directly influence children's ability to regulate these emotions. Alternatively, these parental behaviors may be elicited by children who express fears and anxieties more frequently than other children do. Experimental research designs would offer a more definitive test of these competing explanations of the extant correlational findings. Intervention studies, in particular, can test whether experimentally manipulating current family interaction patterns affects children's ability to regulate emotion. This study provides a preliminary experimental test of the relationship between parental behavior and children's regulation of fear and anxiety. Some 40 clinically anxious youth, aged 6-13, were randomly assigned to a family intervention program for childhood anxiety problems, which includes extensive parent communication training, or a child intervention program without parent-training. By comparing these two interventions, we tested if it was possible to improve parenting behaviors—such as intrusiveness—through intensive parent-training, above and beyond the effects of involving children in a child intervention program. We then tested the impact of this change in parental behaviors on children's ability to regulate fear and anxiety. We hypothesized that parent-training would reduce intrusiveness, which would in turn improve children's anxiety outcomes.


Condition Intervention Phase
Separation Anxiety Disorder
Social Phobia
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Behavioral: Family cognitive behavioral therapy
Behavioral: Child-focused cognitive behavioral therapy
Phase II

MedlinePlus related topics: Anxiety Parenting Phobias
U.S. FDA Resources
Study Type: Interventional
Study Design: Treatment, Randomized, Single Blind (Outcomes Assessor), Parallel Assignment
Official Title: Effects of Parental Behavior on Child Anxiety Regulation

Further study details as provided by University of California, Los Angeles:

Primary Outcome Measures:
  • Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule--Child and Parent Versions [ Time Frame: Posttreatment ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

Secondary Outcome Measures:
  • Multidimension Anxiety Scale for Children [ Time Frame: Posttreatment ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

Enrollment: 40
Study Start Date: March 2000
Study Completion Date: April 2004
Primary Completion Date: April 2004 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
Arms Assigned Interventions
1: Experimental
Family CBT
Behavioral: Family cognitive behavioral therapy
12-16 weekly sessions of family cognitive behavioral therapy, 60-80 minutes each
2: Active Comparator
Child-focused CBT
Behavioral: Child-focused cognitive behavioral therapy
12-16 weekly sessions of child-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, 60-80 minutes each

  Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:   6 Years to 13 Years
Genders Eligible for Study:   Both
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:   No
Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

  • The child met DSM-IV criteria for a diagnosis of a principal anxiety disorder based on a semi-structured interview
  • The child was not taking any psychiatric medication at the initial assessment, or was taking a stable dose of psychiatric medication (i.e., at least one month at a stable dose prior to the baseline assessment), and
  • If medication was being used, families stated an intention to maintain that dose throughout the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • The child was currently in child-focused psychotherapy
  • The family was currently in family therapy or a parenting class
  • Either the child or the parents evidenced psychotic symptoms
  • The child began taking psychiatric medication or increased his/her dose of medication during the intervention, or
  • For any reason the child or parents appeared unable to participate in the intervention program.
  Contacts and Locations
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00593515

Locations
United States, California
UCLA
Los Angeles, California, United States, 90095
Sponsors and Collaborators
University of California, Los Angeles
Investigators
Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Wood, Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles
Principal Investigator: Marian Sigman, Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles
  More Information

Publications:
Responsible Party: UCLA ( Jeffrey J. Wood )
Study ID Numbers: 1 F31 MH64999
Study First Received: January 3, 2008
Last Updated: January 3, 2008
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00593515     History of Changes
Health Authority: United States: Institutional Review Board

Study placed in the following topic categories:
Anxiety Disorders
Mental Disorders
Mental Disorders Diagnosed in Childhood
Anxiety, Separation
Phobic Disorders

Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Pathologic Processes
Disease
Anxiety Disorders
Mental Disorders
Mental Disorders Diagnosed in Childhood
Anxiety, Separation
Phobic Disorders

ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on May 07, 2009